The invention relates generally to a semiconductor structure and a method of fabrication thereof, and more particularly to integrating an interconnect in an upper interconnect level with an interconnect in a lower interconnect level to provide good electrical and mechanical contact between the upper and lower level interconnects.
Good electrical and mechanical contact between the upper and lower level interconnects is required to insure overall interconnect reliability. With each generation, more devices and circuits are squeezed onto a semiconductor chip. Consequently, the lines and vias formed in the semiconductor chips have become ever thinner. A major problem with the thinning metal lines and vias resides in the integration of thin vias in an upper interconnect level with lines in a lower interconnect level. More specifically, as the vias become thinner, the mechanical integrity of those vias worsens particularly for deep submicron vias embedded in low-k dielectric materials at the contact area with underlying interconnects. Porous low-k dielectric material only exasperates the problem because a bigger thermal coefficient mismatch between the lower-k dielectrics and metal interconnect is expected than with higher-k dielectrics.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0205482 depicts a prior art structure for integrating interconnects in an upper interconnect level with interconnects in a lower interconnect level in which a “via punch through,” also known as a “via gouging” process is used to create a via with improved mechanical and electrical integrity. The via has an anchoring area, also known as a gouged via feature, that achieves reasonable contact resistance as well as increases the mechanical strength of the via. The improved contact resistance and mechanical strength improves integration of the interconnect with interconnects in a lower interconnect level. The reason for the improved integration is that the gouged via increases the contact area of the interconnect with the interconnect in the lower interconnect level.